THE LORD OF THE RINGS: GOLLUM
Why PlayStation 5’s best tech matters, from those creating for it
“The great news is that Sony has upped the game once more with the new Create button on the DualSense controller, and Gollum will make full use of all system level capabilities to capture and instantaneously share player experiences worldwide,” says Jonas Hüsges, publishing director at Daedalic Entertainment as we chat about how The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum will make full use of PS5.
This stealth adventure, based on the high fantasy of Tolkien, was one of the first games be announced for Sony’s latest console, so as we prepare to plug in our new hardware on 19 November it’s fitting we discover what the dev makes of PS5.
“Every new generation allows players to experience something completely new,” says Hüsges, who reveals his excitement at everything PS5 offers. He points towards the console’s faster loading times, improved visuals, the heightened feedback from the DualSense controller, and the immersion 3D audio enables. “But in the end all of the technological progress only matters if you put it in the hands of capable artists, [who] come up with mechanics that are fun to play and tell a moving story,” he adds.
We can see that Daedalic’s team of artists and coders have trusty hands indeed, as The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum embraces the dark beauty of Tolkien’s world.
FEELING SMAUG
How will Gollum’s adventures in Middle-earth employ PS5’s core new tech? Hüsges offers a glimpse of what’s to come. The team are using the DualSense controller’s advanced haptic feedback to enable us to feel how Gollum interacts with his world.
“Gollum’s actions become more tangible and his physical struggle when he runs out of stamina translates directly to the way the game is played,” reveals Hüsges.
When it comes to getting the most out of the console’s SSD, the developer reveals how this has been a game-changer, enabling Daedalic to create large, detailed environments for The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum. These are open and
team talk
“I love hearing how those developing games for PS5 are excited for the new technology. It’s particularly interesting to hear how tech such as the SSD is being used to create larger, more complex worlds with gameplay built in.”
Ian Dean Editor
ACTIONS BECOME MORE TANGIBLE AND PHYSICAL [USING DUALSENSE].
freely explorable; we need to use the world strategically to overcome enemies and discover ways to escape danger or experiment with the solutions in what sounds a lot like Lord Of The Rings: Hitman.
Hüsges tells us: “The SSD dramatically reduces load times and eliminates the punishing pause after a player death. Restarting a section after a miscalculated jump or a deadly encounter with an orc guard will be instantaneous. We very much want to encourage players to experiment and the SSD takes a big obstacle away.”
When building these large, complex settings, the art team is using PS5’s ray tracing feature to enable us to experience Middle-earth in an imaginative new way – and to enhance the potential of the game’s stealth gameplay. All that light bouncing around isn’t just pretty.
“Clean, ray-traced shadows allow for maximum effect in player guidance in building stealth passages while dynamic and moving light sources bring in the extra challenge when Gollum is roaming through the darkness,” shares art director Mathias Fischer. “All these things, of course, have the nice side-effect of making the game feel vast, and such free roaming environments we are creating look as spectacular as Middle-earth deserves.”
SOUND OF THE FUTURE
Along with tapping into 3D audio to create advanced sound reflection, reverberation, and occlusion to enhance the game’s sense of place and stealth mechanics, it’s clear The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum is built with the latest tech in mind.
Lead game designer Martin Wilkes explains what it all means: “We hope it helps to set a trend for deep storytelling games with a certain ‘human spark’ that manage to immerse players in both the inner workings of their characters and the world around them.”
We’ll be taking a deeper dive into Gollum’s PS5 debut in a future issue.
Will you be venturing into Middle-earth on PS5? @OPM_UK to let us know.